Hotel Carpe Diem Gudauri

Carpe Diem is really well situated. Ski lift is a short two-minute walk. Really is ski out ski in to the boot room. Quiet. Also it’s nearest to the night skiing. Room was comfortable and clean with lots of storage space. Food was ok and good value. Staff nice too. New restaurant attached has a good bar and the food is good. Half-board dinner was not 5-star but ok. Ski shop downstairs as part of hotel made hiring easy.

This is a terrible hotel. Do not stay here!!! The manager of the hotel was rude and the staff unhelpful. They could barely speak English. We arrived in a storm at 6:30 am after a 18 hour trip. People were left to drag their suitcases up an 800 meter slope in half a meter high of snow. The entrance to the hotel was not cleared of snow that night or in the following days. The entrance to the hotel did not have a mat and thus was a slip hazard and in spite of asking the staff on a daily basis to put a mat down so people would not fall and hurt themselves, the staff did nothing and neither did the manager. The bed was cardboard hard. The ski rental shop was on a lower level so people had to climb with their uncomfortable ski shoes up narrow stairs with no rail to hold on to, to access the ski storage room only to be screamed at by the unfriendly manager. The staff did not help with suitcases in any shape or form. Taxis arriving near the hotel entrance skidded on the ice and very nearly missed hitting my friend who half a meter to the right would have landed up in hospital. The ski slope was accessible but demanded a 5 minute walk up the slope. Breakfast was very very basic. Stale bread, a few croissants, jams some cucumber and tomatoes cheese and on good days scrambled eggs. The hotel has an atm machine thank gif because the nearest change is a 25 minute walk away in the snow. There is no village or shops for a nice apres ski experience. The slopes are wide and not very crowded. Although I enjoyed them I am not a super good skier I believe they mostly suit people with a basic level of skiing. So not a great place to go skiing and definitely not the hotel you’d want to stay at.

This hotel offers various services, including the swimming pool, ski rental, restaurants, movie screenings, etc. The rooms were very clean and well designed. The balconies have great views. It is very close to the 2nd ski lift, which has central cafes and ski lift ticket office as well. The hotel also has a parking space.

It all started when the snow blocked the road, we arrived with a minibus that couldn’t reach the entrance because the hotel didn’t bother to clean the driveway. We were forced to make our way by foot with luggage and ski equipment. Then for the whole week of our stay no one cleaned the ice from the stairs outside, making the very dangerous to step on. Along with 3 meters long ice cones hanging from the roof. The restaurant here has a very poor menu, and the heat was broken. They promised us a Georgian food evening on Wednesday, but when we showed up there was nothing of the sort, just the regular poor menu. The sauna ovens are overheating out of control and there are old rusty, broken showers. There’s no safe in the room, only if you ask. And then they give you a safe box that isn’t anchored to anything. The bathroom is dripping water from the ceiling. The shower itself is clogged. The TV in the room is old and small, works very bad, shows mostly Georgian channels, an a couple of Putins propaganda. The mini bar/fridge in the room isn’t working. And the hotel’s staff answer to everything is: “that’s how it is, we cant do anything about it.”